Pedagogy shapes how students learn and engage with content, making it crucial for the higher education sector. Effective teaching methods enhance student understanding, participation, and success across various projects and disciplines.
The project explored the perceptions of academics associated with integrating sustainability education (SE) in business and accounting schools in India. We find that all five TPB constructs attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, environmental consciousness, and ethical consciousness positively influence academics’ intentions and actual behaviour to implement SE.
The study has implications for academics, administrators in higher education institutions, and education policymakers. This is the first research that has developed and used the extended the TPB model to predict academic intentions and behaviour in integrating SE in developing Asian countries such as India. Theoretically, this study contributes by extending the existing TPB model with two new independent variables: environmental and ethical consciousness.
Project Team: Dr. Ritangi Narang, Dr. Monika Kansal, Dr. Mahesh Joshi
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: December 2024
This Students Against Academic Misconduct team worked together to develop a plan for education, prevention, and detection of academic misconduct. After the project was developed, SBL initiated the program in 2019 with a specific unit to test its success. Over the six years, varying enrolment figures were recorded. The highest enrolment was observed in 2019, with 1548 students, while the lowest was noted in 2021, with 211 students. Fluctuations in enrolment reflect the COVID-19 pandemic.
Data analysis revealed variations in the percentage of the total student cohort implicated within the unit due to breaches. The highest percentage was observed in 2018, with 37.15% (n = 523), whereas the lowest was noted in 2023, with 0.85% (n = 8). These percentages offer insights into the prevalence and impact of breaches within specific academic units.
To address the ongoing growth of academic integrity issues, a student engagement approach was adopted. Students were recognised as valuable stakeholders with insights into the root causes of academic integrity breaches. By involving students as partners, their perspectives and experiences were leveraged to inform the development of strategies and interventions. This approach aimed to empower students, allowing them to take ownership of their academic journey and fostering a sense of responsibility towards academic integrity.
Project Team: Associate Professor Anthony Weber and Dr. Robert Vanderburg
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: December 2024
Research on assessment practices that can be used online to support innovative student learning and maintain confidence in academic integrity is critical – especially in the face of challenges to education assessment practices in recent years with increases in online education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the use of individualised authentic assessments in a first-year accounting unit at an Australian university.
This study involved 134 students from eight offerings of a first-year accounting unit over four years (2019-2022), that is pre-, during, and post-COVID-19.
Students completed assignments involving their own different listed company (i.e., individualised, and authentic) and included reflective learning journals. This provided a rich source of data about the impact of COVID-19 on the use of these types of assessments.
The research question studied was: How can indivdiualised authentic assessments be used online to support innovative learning and maintain confidence in academic integrity?
Project Team: Dr Maria Tyler and Dr Martin Turner
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: 2025
A few colleagues from CQU are collaborating to write a journal article showcasing the use of AI in their teaching and learning practices across CQU.
Different cases will be presented as case studies. The use of Gen AI MPA Accounting class emphasizes the need for customized educational approaches to the use of Gen AI in teaching and assessments to accommodate the unique cohort characteristics and their learning backgrounds. This research aims to demonstrate the importance of learning and teaching context while designing classroom interactions and assessments in the AI era. With the inclusion of AI in the accounting classroom, the students learned how to review and critically evaluate the output generated by AI, not unquestioningly accepting, and using the answers for their learning or completing assessment tasks. This thoughtful exposure enhanced the awareness levels of accounting students about the foundational knowledge, basic functionalities, risks and challenges associated with AI.
Dr. Monika Kansal presented at ‘CQU Gen AI Seminar - Use Case Examples (26 April 2024)’. The topic of her presentation was “Hi Chat GPT, can you prepare financial statements for me’.
Project Team: Dr. Meena Jha, Dr. Monika Kansal, Dr. Bradley Smith, Dr. Brendan Murphy
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: December 2024
Dr. Scott recently completed a monograph, Challenge Based Learning: Engaging Students through Interactivity which is coming out from Springer this year. It is both a practical guide for learning strategies and an exploration of the key elements driving better engagement, including the use of interactive learning strategies, fostering of playful learning environments and moderation of appropriate levels of difficulty and challenge. I'm happy to discuss this with anyone who is interested in implementing these approaches, which include game-based learning – both digital and human-moderated.
Project Team: Dr. Scott Beattie
Project Status: In Progress
As a senior lecturer, Dr. Monika reflects upon the necessity of overhauling the whole assessment design to produce AI-proof assessments. Like everyone else, academics need more time and resources to learn and implement AI. For example, not all academics can offer chat boxes within their units, nor do they have sufficient training to design AI-proof assessments.
One big challenge is how to make them understand the risks of blind use of AI for problem-solving and assessment tasks. Academics can educate students about the responsible use of AI.
As a senior learning designer, Faith Appleton, a leading professional development for VET and HE educators and offering practical support to enhance online learning at CQU feels that at times, the response to AI has been grounded in panic and misinformation rather than good teaching practices. This submission suggests that a governance framework/guidance must be developed at the national level, and
then disseminated and executed at the university level. Leaving it to individual universities to design and enforce the AI framework/s would be very expensive and come largely at the cost of teachers on the ground. The framework should be flexible enough to accommodate the specific needs of universities.
To learn more about this submissions check out our Senior Lecturer and Learning Designer’s Reflections on AI PDF.
Other similar submissions can be found on the Parliament of Australia website. Or read through some short articles on AI that you may find interesting and useful.
Project Team: Dr. Monika Kansal and Faith Appleton
Project Status: Completed
This project examines the integration of sustainability education (SE) in accounting curricula in India. It involves interviews with accounting deans from 22 public and 14 private Indian universities. The findings reveal that SE integration is influenced more by market pressures than regulatory pressures and highlights the role of macro-level influences and differences between private and public universities. The project aims to contribute to the global discussion on SE integration in accounting education by providing insights from a developing country context.
Watch a short presentation on Perspectives of Indian Deans.
Project Team: Dr. Ritangi Narang, Dr. Monika Kansal, Dr. Mahesh Joshi, Dr. Meredith Tharapos
Project Status: Completed
This project grew out of an International Study Tour conducted in 2022 and focusing on wildlife law and protection. My co-researcher, Dr Luke Price, and I embedded a student experience study into the unit, using transformative learning principles as a methodological frame. We collected data by survey, focus group, and analysed a unit assessment in which students reflected on their experience. The findings of this formative study demonstrate that IST can provide a catalyst for, and support, transformative learning. In the context of clinical legal education, transformative learning can support students to develop an understanding of the law that goes beyond stereotypical lawyer-client relationships. It can also nurture skills and perspective transformations that will be increasingly drawn upon to meet the challenges of our era.
Project Team: Dr Alexandra McEwan and Dr Luke Price
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: June 2025
Research on assessment practices that can be used online to support innovative student learning and maintain confidence in academic integrity is critical – especially in the face of challenges to education assessment practices in recent years with increases in online education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study examines the impact of COVID-19 on the use of individualised authentic assessments in a first-year accounting unit at an Australian university.
This study involved 134 students from eight offerings of a first-year accounting unit over four years (2019-2022), that is pre-, during, and post-COVID-19.
Students completed assignments involving their own different listed company (i.e., individualised, and authentic) and included reflective learning journals. This provided a rich source of data about the impact of COVID-19 on the use of these types of assessments.
Watch the team's presentation regarding Inidividualised, authentic assessments: Stress-tested in critical times.
Project Team: Dr Maria Tyler, Dr Martin Turner
Project Status: In Progress
Expected Completion Date: 2025
Transcript
Hello and welcome to our presentation on integration of sustainability education in accounting curriculum across India perspectives from Indian Deans. The study investigates how sustainability education is being integrated into accounting program in Indian universities. We conducted interviews with Deans from 22 public and 14 private universities to explore the different influences on sustainability education implementation. Our research examines the varying influences of market and regulatory pressures on integration of sustainability education. The finding highlights the nuance strategies adopted from different institutions. We explore valuable insights into macro level factors that affect sustainability education integration. The project contributes to the global dialogue on sustainability education in accounting offering perspectives from one of the world's largest developing countries. Thank you for watching we hope our research provides valuable insights into the integration of sustainability education in accounting curriculum. Thank you so much.
